All About Anthony: July 2015

The Nursery! [Anthony's Room]

Here's a little peek into what Anthony's room looks like!

This is his room from the doorway.

This rocking chair belonged to my grandpa Art
(who Anthony is named after) and was
lovingly re-covered by Chris' dad! We love it!

Picture was taken before we got blackout curtains for the room, obviously! :-)

The two pictures are from Etsy; the number picture
references the Bible verse from Matthew 10:30
("the very hairs on your head are numbered") and the
alphabet picture references Deuteronomy 6:6-9
("write them on the door posts of your house").
Chris' parents gave Chris Jimmy Fallon's "Dada" book!

I painted this dog at a pottery painting place
when my mom and aunts took me to Portland on
my 30th birthday! Chris' brother Brian and sister-in-law
Marissa gave Anthony this plant ("a succulent plant
for a succulent baby"). The sign and the
lampshade are both from Etsy.

My great friend and college roommate Kellie put the
paw print decals up all over the place! We love them!

This big dog is a humidifier!

The book was a gift for Anthony from his sweet birth mom!
The tiger shoes are from his Nana (my mom) and the
blue sneakers are from his birth mom's sister and mom!

This dog is fake! Doesn't it look real? It belonged to
Sarah's Nana and Papa, and she's always loved it!

We clung to this Bible verse throughout the adoption process:
"For this child I prayed, and the Lord has answered my prayer."
Our great friend Katie generously took this and many of the
other professional pictures on this site...the blurry ones are all ours :-)

We also set up an area downstairs for the swing/rocker/toys/etc. Here it is!

This picture was taken on our first night home!

This figurine on top of the bookshelf was
from my parents; it matches the figurines
Chris gave on our wedding day and
on our one year anniversary!

This "I grew in their heart" picture was a gift from the Etsy shop
who made the pictures with the numbers and alphabet
Bible verses in Anthony's bedroom - we love it!

Splish, Splash [Anthony's First Bath!]

We did our first bath today! We followed the advice that suggests waiting one week before washing the baby (okay, things were busy so we waited until we'd been HOME a week!)
It was scary and slippery and smiley - he loved it!!!

Anthony's first bath!

Around the World and Back Again [Meeting Grandma & Grandpa]

When we found out that Anthony's birthmom had chosen us, we were 99.99% excited and .01% disappointed...Anthony's due date was smack dab in the middle of their cruise to Scandinavia with their best friends to celebrate Floyd's retirement! We all agreed it was best for them to not change their plans, and the time away made their eventual meeting that much sweeter!
Anthony loves his Grandma and Grandpa SO MUCH already!!!!

Chris making our nightly check-in call to the new Grandma and Grandpa!
In addition to texting every single picture we took,
we'd also call at our bedtime, which was their morning!
It was the next best thing to having them there in person!

Karen and Floyd meet Anthony for the first time!

Surprise! [Telling the World]

While our family, very close friends, pastors, and supervisors at work knew about our adoption plans at some point along the way, the rest of the world (AKA facebook) didn't find out about Anthony until a few days after he was born, once we were home and everything was legally final. We posted a few pictures and some text about our news in the middle of the night, and it was so fun to see "likes", comments, messages, texts, and calls come rolling in.

A screenshot from THE facebook post!

We have had almost NO time to write back to thank everyone, but if you were someone who contacted us with well-wishes, THANK YOU! It meant so much.

What's in a Name? [Anthony Arthur]

ANTHONY
We came up with Anthony's first name in January 2015, before we even knew he existed! Chris came up with it, and we both really fell in love with the meaning: priceless. Once we knew he was on the way, we knew the name was perfect. To us, he is priceless! In other words, we'd do whatever it took to make him our son!

ARTHUR
Anthony's middle name comes from my (Sarah's) paternal grandfather, Arthur Case, who passed away in October 2014. He was there when we told my parents we were starting the adoption process, and he was SO excited for us. He was our #1 cheerleader. We know he would have loved to meet Anthony!

ELDRIDGE
This one is obvious! :-)

Anthony Arthur Eldridge

At the Hospital [The First 3 Days]

We were so privileged to be in the room as Anthony was being born! Against the usual rules, the hospital allowed TWO guests in the C-section room, which meant both Chris and I got to be in the room! Anthony was born about 10 minutes into the 90 minute procedure. We spent the first 80 minutes of Anthony's life taking turns being with him (watching the doctors do their "you were just born a second ago" things, holding him, having skin-to-skin time, etc.) and sitting with Anthony's birthmom to keep her company and keep her distracted from the surgery. The tough part about UW being a teaching hospital is that they explained every move of the surgery as they did it...no one wants to hear that!

We prepare to go into surgery!

Anthony's first picture!!!

Daddy holds him for the first time!

Chris' parents (Grandma and Grandpa) were in Russia the day Anthony was born but my (Sarah's) parents (Nana and Gramps) were able to be at the hospital to meet him in person! They were able to hold him real quick as we transferred from the C-section room back to the flex room, but got to spend extended time with him later that evening!

Anthony meets Nana and Gramps!

We were very blessed to have several framily (friends who are like family = framily) members visit us in the hospital late that night after Anthony's birthmom went to bed. While at least one of us was with him at all times, we tried to make sure that we were with Anthony's birthmom anytime she was awake and wanting company. The hospital was so generous and flexible, letting us have a room right next door to hers! Anyway, that night we were joined by my parents and several very special friends. We champagne-toasted to our little guy's arrival and tried to memorize every inch of his little face! It's a night we will not soon forget!

The next two days are a blur of visitors, quality time, little sleep, and lots of kisses.